Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-6-2020

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Public Policy Leadership

First Advisor

Christian Sellar

Second Advisor

Kenneth Pope

Third Advisor

Wesley Yates

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Imagine a military commander standing around a table with a three-dimensional hologram projected onto to it. The hologram is of an ongoing air war of which this general is in command. Friendly forces are portrayed in blue and enemy forces in red as the opposing forces movements and actions are tracked and continuously updated. The commander has god’s eye view of where his forces are positioned relative to the enemy’s forces. Because of this view, the commander is able to make effective decisions with quick synergistic efficiency to achieve his desired outcome: defeat of the enemy. This scene invokes an image akin to a science fiction film of a futuristic air war with man and machine delicately intertwined. Films such as Star Wars and, notably, Ender’s Game have portrayed this concept; however, technology and human understanding has made these new concepts a reality. For the United States military to maintain its overmatch capability advantage over the advanced technologies and concepts of the enemy we must fundamentally shift our doctrine, policies, concepts for better integration of joint air operations. Informed by geography, the goal of this thesis is to call for a new approach to integrating command and control in the context of joint air operations. China and Russia are growing peer threats that seek to challenge the United States militarily. The current system does not integrate the air, space, and cyberspace domains enough to prosecute air wars. This new approach for joint air operations is called the Real-time integrated command and control system.

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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